Off Day Thoughts

Today the Blue Jays will enjoy a much-needed day off before they have to play four straight afternoon games at the Wind Tunnel (otherwise known as the new Yankee Stadium). I’m predicting that the over/under for home runs hit in this series will be somewhere around 12. Maybe I should put in a call to Stephen at Searching for ’93 because I know he loves to take money on these kinds of bets.

Today is the final day to cast your votes for the 2009 MLB All-Star Game. Although it took a while, I managed to submit my 25 votes for every Blue Jay player. Luckily, it keeps your votes the same but you have to keep resubmitting a validation code each time you load a new ballot. Trust me, it’s a great way to pass the time during an otherwise uneventful afternoon at work. I’ll be honest though, it felt kind of wrong to vote for Alex Rios and Vernon Wells to be in the All-Star game, but I will stand by my Blue Jay-filled ballot nonetheless.

The All-Star voting system is obviously tailored to benefit players in large market teams, but that doesn’t mean fans should forget about voting for the Blue Jays altogether. While it might seem pointless to vote for Blue Jays players when Yankees and Red Sox players usually dominate the lineup, Dave from Go Jays Go actually offers an interesting strategy to get Aaron Hill into the All-Star Game.

If Jays fans want to see Hill in the ASG they need to vote for Kinsler. Aaron is too far behind to get to first and if Pedroia passes Kinsler in voting then there’s a good chance Kinsler could be made the back up. Thus leaving Hill in the cold. However, if Kinsler is the starter Hill would HAVE to be the backup with his numbers.

Although it hasn’t been announced yet, look for Ricky Romero to make a strong case to win AL Rookie of the Month for June. If we count yesterday’s game as part of June, check out his stellar numbers: 4-1 record, 1.91 ERA, 40 SO. I can’t think of another rookie that deserves this award more than Romero in the month of June.

Ian has been writing about the Toronto Blue Jays since 2007. He enjoyed the tail-end of the Roy Halladay era and vividly remembers the Alex Rodriguez "mine" incident. He'll also retell the story of Game 5 of the ALDS to his kids for the next 20 years.